On November 24, the group ventured into the Nutty Putty Cave, a popular spelunking spot known for its tight twists . 2011 Jul-Aug;38(4):257-60. Cave diving is perilous at the best of times but Tham Luang presents its own extreme challenges. "Ultimately the decision was made that it was too much risk for the rescuers to remain there in an effort to get him out and the decision was made to leave him in place.". A segment of Investigation Discovery's Disappeared has been devoted to the case, as well as Ben's Vortex, a documentary co-directed by diver Jill Heinerth. No one is known to have seen him since. He said the muddy current . Without a body, closure is impossible. Emergency medical services responded to a call and he was admitted to a hospital in Pensacola. Maltese soldier dies in diving incident off Marr ix-Xini. Bookshelf Updated. 1 This location was perfect for Ben, who was an avid diver. Ben would have been aware of this requirement, if he had been researching cave diving, as his parents reported. News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worlds leading global business publication Ben Reymenants, a Belgian cave diver who operates a dive shop in Thailand, was part of the group that first found the boys on Monday, after more than a week of searching. appreciated. "Not only did it endanger the lives of divers who would risk going farther than they should," said Sorenson, who was by then even more firmly convinced that their son had not died in the cave, "it put all of our lives at risk because we have to go in to recover the bodies." There were no marks on the limestone where a divers helmet or tank would have scraped the cave ceiling. [10] At the entrance is a sign depicting the Grim Reaper which warns divers of the dangers of continuing onwards. He accepted the offer and moved into the house in April 2010. October 23, 2022 7:16 pm. An experienced California diver who was helping with the exploration of the narrow underwater passageways that radiate from a well-known swimming hole . 27-30. ZACATON: The Tragic Death of Sheck Exley. [2], Frustrated by the limitations the search had thus far encountered, and increasingly coming to believe that Ben's body was in an area of the cave no one had yet reached, the McDaniels offered a reward of $10,000, raised from money contributed at a benefit held on what would have been their son's 31st birthday, at the end of the year to anyone "brave" enough to go to those places and find it. [5], The following month, amid increasing criticism, the McDaniels rescinded the reward offer. Warning: Do not read this story if you're claustrophobic. The rescue mission became a body recovery operation, but it became apparent that it would simply be too dangerous to get John out of the passage. The McDaniels devoted their family's extensive financial resources to the search, at one point guaranteeing the replacement cost of a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV). When tested, the tanks were found to contain normal air, not the specialized gas mix required for diving at depth. In 1991, an experienced cave diver named Parker Turner and his diving partner Bill Gavin were mapping caves in Indian Springs, a cavernous fresh water spring in the Florida Panhandle. [15], By Sunday, August 22, no other signs of Ben had been found. Stemberga V, Petaros A, Rasic V, Azman J, Sosa I, Coklo M, Uhac I, Bosnar A. J Travel Med. What happened next is enshrined in mystery. [2] That opinion, the Memphis Commercial Appeal later reported, was shared by posters on a scuba diving website, scubaboard.com, who had also met Ben during trips to Vortex Spring. "The last place I searched was pristine, without a mark that a diver had been there. In 2014, two cave divers died at a depth of more than 300 feet while exploring an ice-cold underwater cave system in the Plurdalen valley in central Norway. While Ben frequented the spring, he never received sufficient training and wasnt considered an experienced diver. Others theorise he faked his own death. 2015 Sep;45(3):147-53. As the sun faded on the 19 th of August, 2010, Ben walked down the narrow dock and slipped in the clear, warm, water of Vortex Spring. [1], More detailed information regarding tanks was given in the Ben's Vortex documentary. [1] But on the night of the 18th, they instead went back to Taran's house for coffee. Med Sport Sci. "He was found near a shovel left near a restriction so small that no one could get through it," said Sorenson, who had pulled Higginbotham's body back through four tight restrictions. In addition, he incurred a hefty tax debt (est. $50,000), and still deeply affected by the 2008 death of his younger brother Paul from a stroke. Whether it's for sport or research reasons, cave diving is an extremely dangerous activity. Jim Donaldson, a partner and manager at Big Blue Diving, a Koh Tao dive school, estimates that there were just six dive shops on the eight-square-mile island in 2000, a year after he arrived . 2023 Cable News Network. Veteran Cave diver Brett Hemphill believes it was likely a painless death. On Saturday, June 23, 2018, 12 members of a local Thai football team, who were between the ages of 11 and 16, and their 25-year-old assistant coach, entered the Tham Luang Nang Non cave for a day . This was the last time Ben was ever seen. Everyone was relieved but then there was a heartbreaking twist. They were eventually able to partially free him using a rope-pulley system. On his nights out with Greer, he told her of plans to eventually start a diving-related business. DAN Divers Alert Network; Deaths; epidemiology; recreational diving; root cause analysis; technical diving. The missing persons case remains open. On August 20, 2010, Ben McDaniel (born April 15, 1980), of Memphis, Tennessee, United States, was reported missing after employees in the dive shop at Vortex Spring, north of Ponce de Leon, Florida, noticed that his pickup truck had remained in the shop's parking lot for the previous two days.McDaniel, who had been diving regularly at the spring while living in his parents' nearby beach house . Thirty separate tests of the water over the next several months showed no sign of an increase in the bacteria that would indicate the presence of a decomposing human body. They never saw him again. . Ben decided to fake his own death, and is still alive somewhere.More than a decade later, the truth of what happened to Ben McDaniel still isn't known.Disclaimer: I had tested positive for covid this week and was in the middle of getting symptoms while recording the videoso it's a little rough, but there was no way I was going to wait to post this story. The state barred entrance to the sinkhole in 1999, reported the Tampa Bay Times, and it was later reopened in 2003 amid pressure from the National Association for Cave Divers and the National . Replies 62 Views . Police assigned divers searched for Ben for days. He had a failed marriage and financial trouble. Undercurrent, 1988 . Before Ben did not have the certification required . Experience is the primary key to staying alive while cave diving, with the death rate increasing to 1/1003 for inexperienced divers. Sheriff's deputies were called about 12:20 p.m. Wednesday to what . [2], They did, however, find some of his equipment. The tragedy began with the 1994 death of Deon Dreyer. An overwhelming majority of the fatalities occurred in the state of Florida where many flooded caves are located. [10] At some points, the passage narrows to 10 inches (25cm), requiring divers to remove their tanks, push them forward through the passage, and then twist their bodies to follow. In the late 2000s Ben McDaniel was going through a difficult period in his life. "I simply see no reasonable evidence that he is NOT in the cave," the Commercial Appeal quoted her as writing in an email. Shortly after, the group of teens saw one of the divers floating face down and when they checked on him, received no response. While police had already searched the spring, there were certain passages that they refused to search because it was much too dangerous and they werent experienced enough. "Once John had been declared dead, there were discussions about 'How do we get him out?' He was also still grieving for his younger brother Paul, a frequent rock climbing partner during their youth, who died in 2008 at the age of 22 from a stroke. He wriggled through minuscule crevices that Ben (who stood at 61) would have been much too large to fit through but he was determined to search every single inch of the cave system. [1], Some other events reported to have occurred on the day Ben disappeared supported that theory. Cave diver David John Shaw (Dave Shaw) died more than 10 years later whilst attempting to retrieve Dreyer's cadaver. After determining that no one else had seen Ben, Taran called the Holmes County sheriff's office. After struggling to breathe for several hours, John became unresponsive shortly before midnight. 186. [2][1] Later, it was revealed that Paul's cause of death was "anoxic encephalopathy due to combined drug (opiate/benzodiazepine) toxicity", [6] a drug overdose, not a stroke. Terrifyingly John then slid even further down into the passage and was trapped with his arms pinned under his chest. Ben's brother who supposedly died from a stroke, actually died from a drug overdose; according to one pathologist there wasn't the slightest sign of a stroke. Ben Davison. According to the . Assisted by helicopters, they searched the swamps along the spring's outflow into Blue Creek and Sandy Creek to the Choctawhatchee River. Efforts to develop preventative interventions to address these hazards should continue. Four died in the hole ( . The cave steadily narrows, reaching a makeshift rebar gate with a chain and padlock, at a point almost 300 feet (91m) from the entrance. The juveniles believed the discussion was in regards to going back down into the cave and whether or not they had enough air in their tanks to complete their dive, the sheriffs office added. Authorities identified the two divers as Todd Richard McKenna, 52, and Stephen Roderick Gambrell, 63. According to RAID, a top scuba training agency, the number one cause of serious injury or death in cave diving is not gear failure, getting lost, becoming trapped, or running out of air. An equipment failure caused the rope system to plunge John right back into the same gap he'd been trapped in previously, and the rescue operation was back to square one. Ben was last seen by two Vortex Spring (VS) employees at the gate blocking untrained and non-certified divers from entering the most dangerous parts of the cave. Josh had no choice but to leave his brother and work his way out of the cave, where he called for help. Cadaver dogs alerted on the water surface, further supporting that theory. What happened in between those two events has completely turned their life upside down. Cave diving is for the most adventurous of scuba divers. Even experienced ones have died there. New posts Search forums. Edd Sorenson (born October 17, 1959) is a technical cave diver known for numerous rescues of lost or trapped divers in the underwater caves of Florida particularly in Vortex Springs and Blue Springs Recreational Park. Two days later, when a worker at Vortex Spring noticed that Ben's truck was still in the parking lot, the Holmes County Sheriffs Office were called, and a recovery effort started. CNN . John Edward Jones, 26, was a medical student and experienced spelunker (someone who explores caves as a hobby) who went cave diving with a group of friends while visiting family in Utah for Thanksgiving in 2009. Authorities in Florida are investigating the deaths of two cave divers at a wildlife park, the Hernando County Sheriff's Office said. On November 24, the group ventured into the Nutty Putty Cave, a popular spelunking spot known for its tight twists, turns and crawls. An inquest has heard how a cave-diver in Cumbria drowned close to the surface early last year, after a problem was thought to have occurred with his rebreather, a unit under development. In the 1990s, 13 divers perished in the cave. apparently ascent attack attempted autopsy beach became boat body bottom breathing buddy California cardiac cardiovascular cause of death cave diving cavern certified coast cold water completed condition considerable continue coronary course currents depth Despite died diving fatalities double fatality drop . At the entrance to the cave is a sign depicting the Grim Reaper. 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